Ye have not come thus far, save it were by the word of Christ, with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him  who is mighty to save. -2 Nephi 13:28 RAV, 31:19b OPV

The second key word is: You. Once we know the What we must discover where this What comes from. Proverb 22: 6 tells us, “Teach a youth about the way they should go; even when they are old, they will not depart from it.” These are wise words indeed, yet how many children lean upon the faith of their parents?

As we saw in the What, when the trial of their faith comes, that they must transition from faith in their parents, families, leaders, etc. to faith in Jesus. That is the You, all need our own personal relationships with God. But to do this, we much acknowledge what it is that we have faith in, that You have faith in, personally.

James

A brother I was working with some time ago, we will call him James, looked up to his parents for their great faith. When his parents announced that they would be divorcing over the infidelity of one of his parents his faith in God was shaken to the core. How could God allow this? How could God be real if these two that had taught his “about the way he should go” were not going to stick with the plan they had taught him: staying loyal to one another, staying true and together as a family unit?

All of this time James had been leaning on his parent’s faith. He had not taken the time to find God for himself. It was not his faith, and when the trial came, he could no longer fall back on the faith he had borrowed. While Debora had faith in an organization, identifying her church as a sort of god, James did not have faith in anything. Here merely hung on to the rational, teachings, and the expectations of those that had raised him.

You

Yet faith is not genetic, it is not something inherited. It is not something we can pass down from parent to child, father to son, mother to daughter. We can use others are a crutch or training wheel for a time, but at some point we must step out on our own and discover God for ourselves. The question I ask you today is not what others have told you to believe, but what do You believe yourself?